Princes of the Apocalypse

Yuna (Dead)

Description:

A masked retiarius… How unusual…

Bio:

Yunalisa Rhei was born in Cael Moray, a bustling port town off the Sword Coast. She grew up playing gladiator games with her eldest brother, Yars, who would play the ‘secutor’ to Yunalisa’s ‘retiarius.’ Her twin brother, also greatly interested in the play fighting, took up a stick as a murmillo, yet another type of fighter whose style had made its way to Moray by way of traveling gladiatorial performances. Her father, who built ships and sharpened harpooning spears, nodded his head with disapproval while his children crossed sticks that washed ashore, but obliged when Yunalisa had begged for leather equipment that, when fitted to her slim figure, made her look indistinguishable from a young male fighter. Her town’s recent thirst for bloodsport confused her parents, who wanted for Yuna to have, first and foremost, a peaceful life, and did not like her penchant for dressing tomboyish and affecting a masculine manner. Yuna’s impatient desire to become a gladiator like her brothers had little to do with what her parents and culture expected of her, and she was often to be found skipping rocks on the ivory-speckled coast by herself. Her brother Yars was the most recognized as having ‘luck’, for it was he who took over the family business. Zebulon became quite the renowned prize fighter, famous for his athletic prowess and dexterity. And Yuna worked as a member of the City Watch, frequenting (and sometimes performing in) gladiatorial events alongside her brother, Zeb. Yuna would watch her brother with admiration as he went up against fighters twice his size; and he was quite in awe of his sister’s overall development.

Tragedy Strikes

Zebulon was the unfortunate casualty of a band of Orcs who were connected to Zhentarim dealings surrounding the gladiator pit in a town that Zeb and Yuna were visiting as part of their travels as gladiators. On a night where she did not need to fight, but was attending a big event (with Zebulon as the main contender), Yuna was surprised to find her brother bleeding to death in an alley outside the arena. Yuna took Zebulon’s mask off and kissed his forehead, then escaped the town wearing her dead brother’s mask, following in the tracks of his Orc murderers for nearly twenty-five miles. At a bar in the next town over, she overheard some gloating about killing a prize fighter that night, which turned to hushed voices discussing future bounty hunts. She ended up taking these Orcs’ lives, committing her first murder out of feelings of justice. For a period of time afterwards, she became obsessed with avenging her brother’s death. At the time of the adventuring party’s first meeting with Yuna, she had been adventuring for some time wearing her brother Zebulon’s mask, and even identifying as “Zebulon,” continuing to pursue the rest of the Orcs who had attacked, so that she could come face to face with her brother’s killers appearing as the famed fighter whom they had once gloated of killing.

Zebulon Returns

After she took off her mask in front of a charging summoned Unicorn, who cried four tears on her cheek, she has had a change of heart and does not wish to root out the contingent evils in her life. She is now completely focused on her efforts as an Emerald Enclave faction agent, and is focused on the bigger picture of rebalancing nature and fighting cosmic and elemental evil at large. Since her unmasking, she has downplayed her previous motivations (and even the confusion regarding her identity and gender), regarding these details as insignificant in the grander scheme of things. This is in part due to the methods which were used to resurrect her, which did not bring her personality back completely. In ways, she is a shadow of her former self and motivations, but she remains bound to her ideal of natural balance and her duty to protect the world from the upcoming apocalypse.

In her early years, Yuna suffered nightly auspicious visions of an impending world-downfall, brought about by elemental evil. When she gave up what she owned to become a lone wanderer, member of the Emerald Enclave, she feigned that she was seeking relief from the trauma of watching her brother die. But in the back of her mind, Yuna was aware that she was following this path primarily out of fear of her childhood visions becoming reality.

ALLIES & ORGANIZATIONS:

Emerald Enclave

Waking at dawn to help her father (who always had some work to provide to her), Yuna got used to the particularities of coast life, the smell of salt in the air for hours on end. She listened the sailors’ rumors of approaching elemental cults of evil with great trepidation, fearing the balance of her home becoming uprooted. Yuna has joined the Emerald Enclave, and is now becoming a druid, in hopes to be prepared for the approach of natural disruption.

Worshipper of Eldath, the Mother Guardian of Groves, and other deities commonly recognized by Druids.

Personality Traits

After a Red Wizard helped to resurrect her, Yunalisa has lost any attachments to her previous personality.

Ideals

Peace (Good)

Elemental balance (Good)

The natural world is more supreme than civilization (Neutral)

Bonds

Oft dreams of awful, auspicious predilections of an impending apocalypse she feels compelled to prevent.

Flaws

The first to jump into a situation, and often the first to make a rash decision. Unshakeable conviction and focus at the expense of awareness.

ADVENTUREHOOKS:

Dangerous Information
It’s a race against time—in a seedy Waterdeep tavern, you overheard a suspicious band of ne’er-do-wells whispering of violent plans. You know that they plan an ambush point on the trail between Redlarch and Ironford Bridge. You also overheard secrets of their leader, supposedly a vicious bandit by the name of ‘Grimjaw’.

Dark Omens
The signs and portents are clear: nature is out of balance. Terrible disaster is drawing closer with every passing day. To restore the balance of nature, the you must destroy the four elemental nodes, terrible locations hidden somewhere in the Dessarin Valley.

Seeking Revenge
Fire cultists torched the character’s home or razed a defenseless village. The character is sworn to stop them. News of further conflagrations have been spreading like wildfire across the Dessarin Valley, with little proof other than the charred remains of farmers amid the burnt husks of the former homesteads.